I am a gay (defined as: showing or characterized by cheerfulness and lighthearted excitement; merry.) open theist.
There, I have said it. I have been writing from this frame of mind ever since I started this blog but have been hesitant to label myself. The open theist label, that is. The reason for this is mainly that I hate labels. They never really justify anyone’s beliefs totally. I constantly hear people refer to themselves as three point Calvinists or four point Calvinists. What does this really mean? If you are a Calvinist, then you are, right? And most Arminians really do not even know who they are or what it means.
Open theism is the same way. There are many proponents of this view and none of them agree on all the intricacies of this theological worldview. That is one of the reasons I hate labels; they are never really accurate in describing anyone’s total belief system. Another, and even more valid reason is, that once you label yourself, most dismiss your views, thoughts, discussions and relevance out of hand. I have seen many people ostracized and labeled as heretical from the start once they say they are an open theist. And many times by people that do not even know what it means.
I believe this viewpoint is biblically sound, addresses almost all the problems I ever had as an atheist, and actually reflects the way we all live as Christians already. We just can’t seem to let go of some of the eisegesis of scripture that has come before us. We ask questions like: who are we to question the early church fathers, those greats of traditional scriptural thought. Well, have you ever thought about the fact that not all of those agreed with each other. If they had I would be one of the first to give what they have said credence. My own denomination has had loads of changes over the last one hundred years of doctrine but some are still so dogmatic about their own current beliefs to the point that they argue that they cannot be wrong and any who oppose them are therefore, heretical.
Open theism really boils down to an argument about God’s omniscience. Does God live outside and above time? Does God know every free will choice we will ever make in the future? Is the future something that exists already to even be known or is it just something that unfolds as choices are made and therefore becomes the present?
I simply do not see how free will exists if God already knows all the choice in front of me as facts. I am okay and actually believe He does know all of my future choices as possibilities. A great book to introduce you to this whole concept is “God of the Possible: A Biblical Introduction to the Open View of God
” by Greg Boyd. But the discussion has to go deeper than just do I or anyone else have free will, even in this viewpoint. I keep being bombarded with the question about Peter’s free will and whether God allowed, foresaw or actually made Peter deny Christ. I believe I have answered this but I do realize that just maybe it was too spread out among the posts and comments to ascertain.
So here is part of what I believe about our free will and I believe it answers any question about Peter’s free will.
For God to truly have loving relationships with His creation He had to make us with free will. Our choices are our own. Peter’s choices were His own. But a major choice he made was to follow Jesus. I believe part of the whole concept of servant hood to God is that we come to a place where we turn our free will over to Him and allow His will to take over. Peter was on that path. He stood and declared that he would never fall in following our Lord but our Lord knew him better than he knew himself. He knew that there was still a pride issue Peter had to overcome to be the man that God wanted him to be.
So the simple answer is that yes, I believe God possibly, and take note I said possibly, caused Peter to deny Jesus. This is not a big problem to me because it is actually where we all are supposed to be. We are supposed to make a free will choice to follow God and part of this, a major part, is giving Him our free will. Is this not what we are doing when we ask Him to direct and lead us as we live for Him? Peter had already come to this place and God used this opportunity for his growth.
The argument against my belief of this issue is pointed toward making me out to say that I do not even believe in free will. That is not the case. But the last thing about this is that no matter what, God is God and can and has suspended our free will on many occasions. Look at Pharaoh, look at Jonah, look at Job, look at all the people destroyed in the Old Testament, look at your own life where God got you to do something you really did not want to do. All of these examples do not in any way mean that free will does not exist.
If this does not answer the endless questions about my belief concerning Peter and his denial, then I am incapable of answering what I believe. If that is the case, I am sorry.
I pray we all use our free will choice to turn our free will over to Jesus.
Love you all
And in case you are wondering, the opening statement was not only to get your attention and to generate Google hits, I am cheerful, excited and merry (gay) because open theism truly does answer more of the unanswerable questions that skeptics have. The mission field is wide open. Let’s go.
Tags: atheist, Belief, blog, Calvin, Creation, Discussion, eisegesis, Free will, God, Greg Boyd, open theism, relationship, Servant, Servant Hood, Theological
I know that Godsmack is the name of a heavy metal band but that is not what this discussion is about. I also know that some of you might be wondering where I have been. Let’s just say that life is a little full and quite hectic right now and I will try to post soon about what is going on and I am trying to get a better handle on this busyness so that I can at least write a couple of times a week again. Thanks for hanging in there.
A few days ago I was reading some opinions concerning success. A question was asked about defining “secular” and “spiritual” success. An early conclusion by one person was that there is no difference between “secular” and “spiritual” success. I agree with this wholeheartedly. What does it profit a man to gain the whole world and yet lose his soul?
“What they crave is reality.”
